Wow. ESPN packed every rumor, whisper, and urban legend about the Patriots into that one article.

Lots of "former employees" and unnamed sources felt like sharing their opinions on how they were wronged by the Patriots, but it all circles back to two key lines:

The Patriots' primary victims saw Spygate, and other videotaping rumors, as confirmation that they had been cheated out of a Super Bowl -- even though they lacked proof.

A former member of the NFL competition committee says the committee spent much of 2001-06 "discussing ways in which the Patriots cheated," even if nothing could be proved.

They said they worked on it for 4 months or something, and it has fewer confirmed facts in it than this post. It amounts to sports tabloid journalism.

The Patriots were punished the max fine (at the time) and draft picks (including a first rounder) for videotaping opponents signals from the wrong location. That's the only illegality that occurred, and they were punished for it. If the guy had videotaped the exact same footage from the press box instead of the sideline, it would have been 100% legal.

A couple clowns in the Cards' front office tooled around thru the internet in Luhnow's files a handful of times, called a "hacking".

That activity is much, much, much worse than anything the Pats have done, cumulatively, yet the Pats are widely and matter-of-factly spoken of as cheaters and vilified endlessly for it. Spoken as fact. Yet the vast, vast majority of the reference support is complete fallacy.

Lost buncha high picks, buncha fines, reputation, productivity time.

Statement from the Pats today:

“The New England Patriots have never filmed or recorded another team’s practice or walkthrough. The first time we ever heard of such an accusation came in 2008, the day before Super Bowl XLII, when the Boston Herald reported an allegation from a disgruntled former employee. That report created a media firestorm that extended globally and was discussed incessantly for months. It took four months before that newspaper retracted its story and offered the team a front and back page apology for the damage done. Clearly, the damage has been irreparable. As recently as last month, over seven years after the retraction and apology was issued, ESPN issued the following apology to the Patriots for continuing to perpetuate the myth: ‘On two occasions in recent weeks, SportsCenter incorrectly cited a 2002 report regarding the New England Patriots and Super Bowl XXXVI. That story was found to be false, and should not have been part of our reporting. We apologize to the Patriots organization.’

“This type of reporting over the past seven years has led to additional unfounded, unwarranted and, quite frankly, unbelievable allegations by former players, coaches and executives. None of which have ever been substantiated, but many of which continue to be propagated. The New England Patriots are led by an owner whose well-documented efforts on league-wide initiatives – from TV contracts to preventing a work stoppage – have earned him the reputation as one of the best in the NFL. For the past 16 years, the Patriots have been led by one of the league’s all-time greatest coaches and one of its all-time greatest quarterbacks. It is disappointing that some choose to believe in myths, conjecture and rumors rather than giving credit for the team’s successes to Coach Belichick, his staff and the players for their hard work, attention to detail, methodical weekly preparation, diligence and overall performance.”

Second, they interviewed over 90 people that are or were league officials, current and former Patriots coaches and employees and former players. In fact, the article was less about the Patriots and more about Goodell's effort to cover up or make up for the mistake he made with the Spygate ruling and trying to avoid Arlen Spector doing a deep dive into the NFL.

I know, that was my point when 1st posted - about more Clown Town stuff outa Goodell.

The Pats are the victims, not the victimizers.

Yeah I'm not ready to paint the Patriots as the victims. They cheated and benefited from it. By hastily ordering the destruction of the evidence, Goodell becomes something of an accomplice. But what's done is done, they cheated, he screwed up and his actions then, set the stage for his performance from that day forward.

Personally, I will look at every one of the Patriots championships with skepticism.

NFL just got an Appeals Court to overturn decision, rules that Brady must serve his DeflateGate suspension!

Ouch ................ unreal .................

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's four-game suspension is — for now — back on. The court essentially ruled not on Brady's guilt or innocence. Instead, it ruled that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had the power to implement a suspension.

The case, even the earlier one, was never about guilt or innocence because it can't be, but rather did the NFL and Goodell deal with the situation in good faith? Goodell has the power to suspend, but he still has an obligation to handle cases fairly and in good faith. And I don't think any reasonable person can look at the timeline of events and say that Goodell dealt with the situation fairly and in good faith. They were gunning for Brady and the Patriots from the beginning and you can tell based on the biases revealed in the findings of the Wells report.

I'd pay good money to see what the PSI numbers from this season with their new for measuring system were.

About the only undeniable fact from the case is that the footballs in that AFC vhampionship a couple seasons ago weren't unnaturally deflated. Science proves that. Unfortunately, science isn't a big thing in the NFL.

Ideal Gas Law and faulty measuring explain away the "crime," or point to numbers so miniscule no reasonable person could see them as the act of a grand conspiracy. The footballs just weren't deflated. As such, there was no deflation to punish. Everything else should be moot and considered nothing more than case study of confirmation bias and the power of inaccurate, yet highly prejudicial, media leaks.

Or in a case of every non-NFL paid scientist (and even, for the most part the NFL-paid ones too) v. Roger Goodell, you choose to believe Roger Goodell. If so, well, good luck with that.

In this case though, as the majority opinion of Judges Denny Chin and Barrington D. Parker make clear, Goodell can conclude, infer, imply, invent and pretty much do whatever he wants. Goodell is God and the players have to accept that. Absolutely RIDICULOUS.

Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann, writing the dissenting opinion in favor of Brady, agreed, citing the official "League Policy For Players." He notes:

"The League's justification for prohibiting stickum – that it 'affects the integrity of the competition and can give a team an unfair advantage,' – is nearly identical to the Commissioner's explanation for what he found problematic about the deflation – that it 'reflects an improper effort to secure a competitive advantage in, and threatens the integrity of, the game.' "

Moreover, the procedure for guarding against the use of Stickum – referee inspection of equipment (gloves) – is the same as guarding against deflation – referee inspection of equipment (footballs).

The penalty for getting caught with Stickum on your gloves, something a player would be acutely (not merely generally) aware? Try a fine of $8,268.

Getting caught a second time? It jumps to $16,537.

I've been pointing out the part about official inspection of the equipment since the beginning. The rules are pretty clear that if the balls are found to be improperly inflated, they are reinflated to the legal level and you carry on. If the official approves the equipment and puts it in play, it's approved.

If Tom Brady's receivers all used Stickum in that game, they'd have gotten $8k fines. Brady is generally aware of a conspiracy to deflate footballs (which is very tenuous at best to say they actually were) and he gets four games. And the reason for doing either is the same.

The players are going to have quite a few points to push in CBA negotiations. Should be interesting. Will they have the backbone to stand up?

Tom Brady’s legal team is arguing the appeals court decision that effectively reinstated his four-game Deflategate suspension last month will harm not only NFL players, but all unionized workers and even management by allowing labor arbitrators to go rogue.

In a petition to be filed Monday afternoon for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc before the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Brady’s team argues the split decision from three judges conflicts with decisions by the Supreme Court and other appeals courts on multiple issues surrounding NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s handling of the case in his role as arbitrator.

“The problem for the commissioner was simple,” NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith told USA TODAY Sports. “No one believes the conclusions of the Wells Report, and thus, he was stuck with all of the facts developed at the hearing that disproved the Wells Report and he had to base his punishment on something completely new.

Basic argument it looks like they're going to take is that Goodell can't suspend a player for one thing (deflating footballs), their evidence for that one thing demonstrated to be questionable (Wells report), and then suspend him for another (cell phone destruction). And that there is already an agreed upon penalty structure for equipment violations, which deflated footballs are (the dissenting appeals judge pointed this one out).

How much money has Roger Goodell wasted on what really should have been a slam dunk case if they were, in fact, intentionally deflating the balls?